All Success Is A Lagging Indicator
The other day I sat down to write.
But it didn���t happen.
It just wasn���t there. The words. The momentum. One thought leading into the next. I knew I wanted to say something. I knew what I wanted it to be about. But I couldn���t get much further than that, beyond just a few sentences.
A classic case of writer���s block, right?
Maybe. Except I happen to think that writer���s block doesn���t exist. I���m with Jerry Seinfeld who said, ���Writer���s block is a phony, made-up, BS excuse for not doing your work.���
The words I chose above were illustrative:
It just wasn���t there.
What is it?
It wasn���t the muses. Or inspiration. And I���ve never been a genius so that hadn���t abandoned me. What wasn���t there then?
The work.
I hadn���t done the work. Writing is a byproduct of hours and hours of reading, researching, thinking, making my notecards. When a day���s writing goes well, it���s got little to do with that day at all. It���s actually a lagging indicator of hours and hours spent researching and thinking. Every passage and page has a prologue titled preparation.
The solution to my writer���s block that day was not to write at all. It was to stop for the day and go research the topic more. It was to go for a run and a walk. It was to do the prep work.
Success as a lagging indicator is a phenomenon that holds true across most areas in life.
When I look in the mirror and I���m a little flabby, that is a lagging indicator that, for weeks and months, I���ve slacked on eating healthy and exercising. When I���m grouchy and frustrated and anxious or short with my wife, that is usually a lagging indicator that I need to eat (in 2014, ��Researchers from Ohio State University found�� that most fights between couples are because someone is hungry). When I���m getting sick a lot, that is a lagging indicator that I have not been taking care of myself, working too hard, ��not sleeping enough��.
Your retirement accounts are a lagging indicator of whether or not you have your financial act together���earning enough, saving enough. Pulling an all-nighter is not a sign of dedication but a lagging indicator of the exact opposite. It means you plan poorly, you procrastinate, you aren���t proactive enough, you don���t know how to effectively manage your work and your time. Not being able to ��fully disconnect from your devices�� on vacation is a lagging indicator that you don���t have good systems in place. Hitting a personal record on the bench press is a lagging indicator of a lot of discipline and hard work. Receiving a promotion is a lagging indicator of a lot of quality work. Delivering a keynote with confidence is a lagging indicator ��of a lot of preparation��.
All my books are lagging indicators. ��They are a culmination of years of work��. That���s actually Robert Greene���s definition of creativity. He says, ���creativity is a function of the previous work you put in.��� Creativity is not mysterious or romantic. It���s tedious, Robert says. ���If you put a lot of hours into thinking and researching and reading, hour after hour���a very tedious process���creativity will come to you.���
But so are their sales. ��The Obstacle is the Way�� sold in its first year what ��Discipline is Destiny�� sold in a week. How? Because day after day after day, I worked to build a system, a platform, that has become a flywheel that day after day spins faster and faster. Combined, over a million readers have subscribed to ��Daily Stoic��, ��Daily Dad��, ��The Reading List Email��, and this RSS email lists. Of course, I have social media, too (you can follow me on ��Instagram��, ��Twitter��, ��TikTok�� and ��YouTube��). In other words, I���ve filled a dozen football stadiums worth of ���true fans��� who I have built a relationship with.
This is what keeps me moving���knowing that I have to keep filling and refilling the creative well. Knowing that creative output is a lagging indicator of a lot of hours of tedious work. Knowing that if I want to publish more books in the future, the only question is, am I doing the work now?
It���s what keeps my priorities straight as a parent. I want to have a relationship with my kids as long as I am able to���which means investing in it now. In twenty years, attendance at Thanksgiving will be voluntary. ��Attendance will be a lagging indicator of who I was as a parent today��.
It���s true as a spouse too. Fifty years of marriage is a lagging indicator of how quickly arguments are resolved today, how mistakes are handled today, the pressure of (or better yet, the lack thereof) today.
And it���s true of fame and celebrity���at least the good kind, not the famous-from-a-sex tape kind. Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden ��would say in an interview�� that ���fame is the excrement of creativity, it���s the shit that comes out the back end, it���s a by-product of it.��� It���s a lagging indicator of years of making stuff that people like and get to know you through.
Even this article is an example. It���s a lagging indicator, a byproduct of a process that started with an idea on a notecard, to an idea I kicked around with others in conversations and with myself on walks, which led to a first draft I spent time on across several days, which I returned to across several weeks whenever I had tweaks and improvements, which was edited by a team, and then finally published.
Nothing comes from nowhere. Not success. Not inspiration. Not the muses. Not writer���s block. Everything is a lagging indicator. Of whether or not you did the work.
